The fund aims to deliver income and capital growth by investing in a broad range of fixed income securities, wherever the manager sees the greatest opportunities. The manager may also hold up to 20% of the portfolio in company shares when he believes they offer better value than bonds. Exposure to these assets is gained through physical holdings and the use of derivatives. An in-house team of independent credit analysts assists the fund manager in the selection of individual bond issues.

?FE Risk Scores measure the riskiness of instruments relative to the FTSE 100 index of shares. Weekly volatility is measured over three years with recent behaviour counting more heavily than earlier behaviour. Cash-type investments will have scores close to zero. Funds will tend to have scores in the 0-150 range. The FTSE 100 is always scored at 100. There is no upper limit.

?Alpha is a measure of a fund's over- or under-performance by comparison to its benchmark. If the Alpha is 5, the fund has outperformed its benchmark by 5%; so the greater the Alpha, the greater the outperformance.

-

Beta

?Beta estimates a fund's volatility by comparison to that of its benchmark. A fund with a beta close to 1 means that the fund will move generally in line with the benchmark. Higher than 1 and the fund is more volatile than the benchmark and vice versa.

-

Sharpe

?This commonly-used measure calculates the level of return over and above the return of a notional risk-free investment, such as cash. The difference in returns is then divided by the fund's volatility. The resulting ratio is an indication of the amount of excess return generated per unit of risk.

-

Volatility

?Volatility (or standard deviation), when applied to an investment fund, expresses its risk. It shows how widely a range of returns varied from the fund's average return over a particular period. For example, if a fund had an average return of 5%, and its volatility was 15, this would mean that the range of its returns over the period had swung between +20% and -10%.

-

Tracking error

?This measures the standard deviation of a fund's excess returns over the returns of an index or benchmark portfolio. As such, it can be an indication of 'riskiness' in the manager's investment style. A Tracking Error below 2 suggests a passive approach. At 3 and above the the manager will be deploying a more active investment style.

-

Information ratio

?This is a useful risk-adjusted measure of actively managed fund performance. It is calculated by deducting the returns of the fund's benchmark from the fund's overall returns, then dividing the result by its tracking error. The higher the Information Ratio the better. It is generally considered that a figure of 0.5 reflects a good performance, 0.75 very good, and 1.00 outstanding.

-

R-Squared

?An indication of how closely correlated a fund is to an index or a benchmark. Values for R-Squared range between 0 and 1, with 0 indicating no correlation at all and 1 showing a perfect match. Values upwards of 0.7 suggest that the fund's behaviour is increasingly linked to its benchmark.

-

Price movement

52 week high109

52 week low97.8

Current bid price-

Current offer price-

Current mid price108.9

Region

1

USA

32.23%

2

UK

23.29%

3

Germany

22.11%

4

France

6.53%

5

Italy

2.59%

6

Money Market

2.56%

7

Netherlands

2.1%

8

Mexico

1.45%

9

Spain

1.2%

Industry sector

1

Government Bonds

20.74%

2

Telecommunications

14.51%

3

Banks

12.26%

4

Asset/Mortgage-Backed Securities

7.41%

5

Media

6.1%

6

Equities

5.02%

7

Insurance

4.27%

8

Electronics

3.77%

9

Utilities

3.48%

Asset type

1

US Corporate Fixed Interest

29.69%

2

UK Corporate Fixed Interest

21.71%

3

German Government Fixed Interest

12.84%

4

French Corporate Fixed Interest

5.76%

5

Global Index Linked

4.71%

6

German Corporate Fixed Interest

3.64%

7

Money Market

2.56%

8

Dutch Corporate Fixed Interest

1.92%

9

US Equities

1.88%

Individual holdings

1

GERMANY(FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF) 0.5% BDS 13/10/17 EUR1000

3.46%

2

GERMANY(FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF) FRN 23/02/18 EUR0.01 165

2.33%

3

GERMANY(FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF) 0.25% BDS 13/04/18 EUR100

2.32%

4

GERMANY(FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF) 0.5% BDS 07/04/17 EUR100

2.3%

5

GERMANY(FEDERAL REPUBLIC) 1.75% ILN 15/04/20 EUR0.01

2.09%

6

GERMANY(FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF) IDX/LKD 15/04/18 EUR1000

1.87%

7

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC 4.672% NTS 15/03/55 USD2000

1.46%

8

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC 5.012% BDS 21/08/54 USD2000

1.46%

9

TREASURY 1% GILT 07/09/17 GBP0.01

1.28%

Management

Fund manager group

Standard Life Investments

Fund manager company

Standard Life Assurance Co

Fund type

Pension Fund

Fund objective

The fund aims to deliver income and capital growth by investing in a broad range of fixed income securities, wherever the manager sees the greatest opportunities. The manager may also hold up to 20% of the portfolio in company shares when he believes they offer better value than bonds. Exposure to these assets is gained through physical holdings and the use of derivatives. An in-house team of independent credit analysts assists the fund manager in the selection of individual bond issues.

Benchmark

No Specified Index

Investment style

No data available.

Investment method

No data available.

Fund managers

Name

Since

Biography

Stefan Isaacs

08/12/2006

Stefan Isaacs is Deputy Head of Retail Fixed Interest for M&G's mutual fund range. He joined M&G as a graduate in 2001 and was subsequently promoted to corporate bond dealer specialising in high yield bonds and euro-denominated credit. Stefan joined the fund management team in 2006 and was appointed fund manager of the M&G European Corporate Bond Fund in April 2007 and the M&G Global High Yield Bond Fund in October 2010. Stefan is also deputy fund manager of the M&G Optimal Income Fund, the M&G European High Yield Fund and the M&G Global Floating Rate High Yield Fund.

Richard Woolnough

08/12/2006

Richard Woolnough joined M&G in January 2004 and is fund manager of the M&G Optimal Income Fund, the M&G Corporate Bond Fund and the M&G Strategic Corporate Bond Fund, three of the company's flagship fixed interest funds. Richard began his career at Lloyds Merchant Bank in 1985, moving to Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali two years later, followed by SG Warburg. In 1995, he became a fund manager at Old Mutual. Richard graduated from the London School of Economics with a BSc in Economics.

Compliance

No data available.

Domicile

No data available.

Fund for sale in

United Kingdom

Stan Life M&G Optimal Income Pn S3

Initial charge-

Annual charge1.56%

Min single investment£0

Min regular saving£0

Available in ISANo

Ongoing charge (OCF)-

Total expense ratio (TER)1.77%

Bid price-

Offer price-

Mid price149.4

CurrencyGBX

Price updated08/12/2016

TypeAccumulation

Institutional or retail classRetail

Domicile-

Citi codeJYA2

Stan Life M&G Optimal Income Pn S4

Initial charge-

Annual charge1.56%

Min single investment£0

Min regular saving£0

Available in ISANo

Ongoing charge (OCF)-

Total expense ratio (TER)1.77%

Bid price-

Offer price-

Mid price149.6

CurrencyGBX

Price updated08/12/2016

TypeAccumulation

Institutional or retail classRetail

Domicile-

Citi codeJYA3

Stan Life M&G Optimal Income Pn SB

Initial charge-

Annual charge0.64%

Min single investment£0

Min regular saving£0

Available in ISANo

Ongoing charge (OCF)-

Total expense ratio (TER)-

Bid price-

Offer price-

Mid price108.9

CurrencyGBX

Price updated08/12/2016

TypeAccumulation

Institutional or retail classRetail

Domicile-

Citi codeKMRM

Data provided by

The Content is only for your general information and use and is not intended to address your particular requirements. The Content does not constitute any form of advice, recommendation or arrangement by Moneywise and is not intended to be relied upon by you in making (or refraining from making) any specific investment or other decisions. Appropriate independent advice should be obtained before making any such decision.

This information is sourced from our partner Financial Express. We believe the data to be correct however you should take care in using any information.

You should be aware that prices may fall as well as rise and that the income derived can go down as well as up. When buying or selling any investment that fluctuates in price or value you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance.

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